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Dessert

I know food isn’t the reason for holiday celebrations, but a abundance of yummy dishes certainly adds to the festivities and marks the day as something more than the ordinary. One of the nice things about having a house full of guests is that you can prepare multiple desserts. It’s so nice to have a choice and even better to have leftovers. Let me share some of my favorite Polish desserts for Easter, mazurki, serniki, bakba, other cakes and cookies.

Whatever combination of Polish Easter Desserts you decide to make, I want to wish you and yours a joyous celebration of resurrection and new beginnings.

Smacznego!

Lois

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Cytrynowa Babka (Lemon Babka) is a wonderful accompaniment to tea or a bright lemony treat to serve for Easter. I’ve been wanting to make one ever since our friend, Symon, said Cytrynowa Babka (pronunciation) was his favorite.

Many babkas are a yeast bread sort of cake. This one reminds me of a pound cake. The leavening comes from beaten eggs and baking powder, and it’s made with equal weights of butter, sugar, and flour.

I’ve tried a traditionally Polish method for preparing the bundt pan — buttering the pan and then coating with bread crumbs (unseasoned, of course). It adds a wee bit of texture to the crust, but I’ve never had a bundt cake release so well, the finish is perfect.

This wonderful moist cake comes from Ciasto.net, a Polish website for homebaked goods.

One thing I learned visiting Polish friends after Easter is that everyone makes Mazurek, and their Eastertide guests get to sample! Mazureks are highly decorated, short crust tarts. It’s also a dance, a type of music, and even a surname, but my favorite Mazurek is the pastry. Last year, I made two for our Easter celebration, one topped with a chocolate hazelnut spread, the other with caramel. This year, I’m trying out Mazurek Królewski (Royal Mazurek). This recipe is based on one I found on MniamMniam.pl. according to Grzegorz, the Polish food blogger, this sweet is for more than just the holidays.

Grzegorz suggests drizzling the finished tart with a glaze. I was lazy and just dusted it with powdered sugar, but the next time I make it, I will leave it plain. For me the royal aspect of this tart is all about the colorful jams. I don’t want to do anything to mute the jewel-like colors. Next time, they will shine!

In my mind, I was going to create a geometric masterpiece, a lattice of wonderful straight lines without a patch in sight. That was before I met the crust. It’s a little temperamental, with a mind of its own. Even though I used a ruler, I had to accept to a more homespun look for my lattice.

Speaking of amazing lattice tops (in my dreams), have you checked out lokokitchen on instagram? Her pies are works of art!

I hope this jewel top Mazurek will be part of your Easter celebration.

My friend Elzbieta made Kostka Alpejska (Cube from the Alps) as one of her Easter cakes along with Mazurek a few years ago, and I was lucky enough to sample it during an Eastertide visit to her home. Cube from the Alps or Alpine Brick depending on your translation is a thin cake of chocolate sponge, topped with a caremel buttercream into which you’ve added small little baked meringue kisses (beza). The whole thing is then topped with stabilized whipped cream and shaved chocolate. It makes for a striking presentation.

Kostka Alpejska (Cube from the Alps) is sweeter than most Polish desserts, making it just right for the American palate. Maybe you’ll want to add Kostka Alpejska (Cube from the Alps) to your Easter menu this year!

Notes

If you don’t want to be one of those bakers with a dozen liqueur bottles on the shelf (not that I see anything wrong with that, but it gets expensive), mini-bottles are just the right size for this recipe. Total Wine and More is a great source for mini-bottles of just about everything.

Using dissolved gelatin to stabalize whipped cream is a great trick. It will keep the cream from seperating and getting runny if you need to make it in advance.

Thought to originate in Central Europe, we know them in the USA by their Yiddish name, Blintzes. These super thin pancakes filled with a ligtly sweet farmer’s cheese were well known in Hungary, Slovakia, Russia, and Poland before the rest of the world discovered Naleśniki z Serem – Polish Crepes with Cheese around 1800.

Elegant in appearance, to me, this is typical of Polish desserts, not too sweet, which makes me inclined to give them a drizze of chocolate sauce. 🙂

Smacznego!

Lois

PS – These are also excellent with a spread of Nutella and banana slices! YUM-O!

Did you make this recipe?

These beautiful little Serniki Migdałowe Polish Almond Cheesecakes popped up on Facebook recently. They’re mini-cheesecakes, individual servings that resemble a head of cabbage or a flower bud. Their architectural look is so appealing, as is the taste! A step-by-step video from Smaczny.tv made them seem like something very doable, so long as you can read the ingredients in Polish. I think I’ve managed to do just that. (Click on Serniki Migdalowe above to hear the pronunciation. It was requested that I let readers know how to pronounce Polish words, and I was terrible at phonics in 3rd grade, so rather than writing it phonetically, you get an audio recording. It will be a good chuckle for the native Polish speakers in the crowd!)

Two things became very apparent to me as I began assembling this dessert:

The folks are Smadzny.tv are professionals. Everything they’ve done is perfect! The circle of dough is a perfect circle, the filling texture is ideal. The good news is that mine are not perfect and the end product is still very attractive and delicious.

The second thing that crossed my mind was that sometimes, Polish cooks and American cooks go about things very differently to wind up at the same place — the yeast dough in this case. I often use a dry yeast packet as this recipes uses. I would normally dissolve the yeast in warm (110 F) liquid (in this case the milk and melted butter) and a little bit of the sugar to be sure the yeast is active. I’ve written this recipe as closely as I can to the video. The yeast is one of the last things to go into the dough. It goes in after the flour and before the melted butter. Adding the butter at the end was unusual for me too. It took a lot of kneading to incorporate the butter, but it did have the added benefit of greasing the bowl in which the dough was to rise. Something that’s usually an extract step.

I’m so intrigued by these little sernik bundles that I will make them again. Maybe a little almond extract next time? Maybe try parbaking and freezing them. You see, in 2019, I’m planning to cook a large meal at the church where I work as a fundraiser for an after-school program the church operates. It will be dinner for 60 – 100. Tickets will be pricey, this is a fundraiser after all. So the meal needs to be interesting and special. I’d like to do a Polish menu, but I worry that Polish food isn’t that well-known in this part of the country and not everyone is as adventurous, who am I kidding? Most people are not as adventurous as Ed and me when it comes to food. I think these serniki might be safe enough and special enough to qualify if I can find a reasonable way to make 100 of them along with several other courses. I’ll keep you posted –Serniki Migdałowe Polish Almond Cheesecakes for the masses.

Smacznego!

Lois

PS – Looking for Polish memorabilia? I’m happy to say that Polish Housewife is now affiliated with the online store, My Polish Heritage. Use this link to shop for all things Polish — T-shirts, jewelry, mugs, and more. With this link, you’ll receive a 5% discount, and I’ll earn a small commission on your purchase.

to assemble

Take 1/12 of the filling (approximately 2 tablespoons), shape it into a ball and place in the center of the dough circle

Make four cuts in the dough from the edge, almost up to the filling, at 12:00, 3:00, 6:00, and 9:00.

Dip your fingertip in water and lightly moisten the outside edge of the dough

Fold one petal up on the filling, securing the edges at the bottom of the dough

Repeat with the three remaining petals, the filling will just peek out of the center

Use your hands to round out the bottom of the bundles

Place on a parchment line baking sheet

Brush with beaten egg

Press a few almond slices into the sides of the dough petals

Bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown

Cool, dust with powdered sugar

Notes

My health food/farmers market style store had tubs of farmers cheese, but I opted for ricotta because it was cheaper and closer to the quantity I needed. I figured once I added all the other things, any difference would not be noticeable. But the texture of the mixture was a little runny, so I popped it in the freezer for a few minutes to firm it up and make it easier to form a golf ball shape for the filling.

I warmed a bit of lingenberry jam, put a spoonful on the serving plate and gave it a smear to add a bit of color to this yummy but beige dessert.

Did you make this recipe?

We have friends coming for dinner tonight, one of whom is originally from Bydgoszcz, PL. Our menu is mostly Polish: Barszcz with Krokiety, Żurek, Kotlet Schabowy, Silesian Dumplings, cucumber salad, and a gołbaki casserole topped with mashed potatoes. For dessert, we’re going American. In planning our menu, I thought I would make two pies, one of them apple. But my pie baking was done the day before, on a Monday night, after a long day at work, and the thought of peeling and slicing apples after dinner didn’t sound appealing. So I decided to only do my other pie choice, a Cherry Berry Pie.

I used three packages of frozen fruit, so this is something you can make any time of year. If you have a summertime abundance of inexpensive, fresh berries, even better.

It’s possible to make a pie crust in almost no time at all, but if you wanted to make this even faster, use two prepared circles of pastry. In that case, this could be assembled while you’re preheating the oven.

This was the first time I’ve used my Home Made cookie stamp. I saw a pie one of my blogging friends made using one. It seemed like such a nice touch that I wanted to add the stamp to my collection. I’ll have to work on my technique. It’s not easy to read.

The recipe is basically one that I’ve had for fifty years (a Pillsbury 3-ring binder cookbook) with an improvement from Rose Levy Berandaum, thicken fruit pies with corn starch, not flour, and lots of it. I love that after it’s cooled, I can slice this pie and the filling does not run all over the pie pan. After it’s set up, it stays put. It’s not too solid, it’s just right.

Did you make this recipe?

Want to recreate the Wawel Trufle? (affliliate link*) Trufle Czekoladowe Chocolate Truffles are rich, creamy, and decadent. They’re also so incredibly easy to make. I whipped up a batch this week to share with my colleagues. I mixed them up one evening in about five minutes. The chocolate molten mass needs to chill overnight, so the next evening I shaped the chocolate into little balls and rolled them in cocoa powder.

I’d seen truffles rolled in colorful nonpareil sprinkles, so I tried that with one because I liked the look, but after tasting it, discarded the idea. The hard little sprinkles were overpowering. Their crunchiness distracted from the creamy texture of the chocolate. It just wasn’t worth it to get the pop of color.

I have a bit of the filling left, and will try dipping it in tempered chocolate or a melted chocolate bark. This will take more time. It won’t be so quick and easy, but will more closely resemble the Wawel treats. I’ll update to let you know if it’s worth the trouble.

I flavored my truffles with brandy, but you could use rum, or a flavored liqueur. I think a homemade cherry vodka would be nice.

For gifting, I popped a truffle into a mini white muffin cup and put four into a three inch paper mache box with a lid. I found a dozen on Amazon (affiliate link*).

I have received little truffles like this from the chef at the end of a meal, and it always feels like a very special treat. Now you can make your own special treats too.

*Affiliate link – means that Amazon pays me a small percentage of any purchases made via the link above. Your price is still the same. It helps to offset the cost of running this website.

My dear friend, Barbara, gave me an easy to prepare Szarlotka recipe that I’ve made several times over the years and shared here. It has become one of the most popular recipes on my website. I’ve been wanting to try a popular variation of szarlotka, topping it with meringue. So, of course, this is the recipe I wanted to adapt. Here, my friends, I give you Szarlotka z Bezą Polish Apple Pie with Meringue.

Why add meringue to szarlotka, you may ask. Well, the meringue adds a bright pop of bright white color to an otherwise beige dessert. It’s adds a creamy texture and additional interest to an otherwise already delicious dessert. The recipe calls for egg yolks in the crust, with just a slight modification, we can use an equal number of egg whites in the topping. I’ll freeze extra egg whites for another us, but it’s nice when you don’t have to.

How does Szarlotka compare to American pies? It seems less sweet, no sugar is added to the apple filling, so the fruit flavor really comes through. I think you’ll love it!

In making this Polish Gingerbread Cake Ciasto Imbirowe, I’m giving you muplitle options, and I hope that doesn’t make it too confusing. You could just make two plain loaves of gingerbread cake and stop there or, possibly brush the top with melted jam and decorate the top of the loaf with dried fruit as you’ll see on Moje Wypieki. I wanted to recreate a commercial pastry that we used to buy at the Zabka, a Polish convenience store, near our apartment in Poznan. It was a package with little petit fours sized cakes that were filled with jam and marzipan and covered in chocolate, absolutely addictive!

I have a mini bundt pan (six little cakes), so I used that in place of one of my loaf pans. I wanted to try putting the jam and marizpan directly into the batter, but I wasn’t sure that would work. My Plan B was to slice the cakes horizontally, brush with melted jam and add a thin layer of marzipan before covering with chocolate ganache. So I filled three of my mini bundt pans only half full of batter, then I made a coil of marzipan about the size of a pencil and added that along with little dabs (about a teaspoon in total) of jam. Then added more batter to cover the filling.

The three remaining mini bundts I left plain in case I needed to make these according to Plan B, thinking that my jam and marzipan might run out and stick to the pan, making the cakes impossible to remove. That didn’t happen, all six cakes cake out nicely. The other half of my batter went into a loaf pan. The batter rises a lot, giving a rustic split to the loaf as it bakes. Still inspired by my gingerbread petit fours, I trimmed the loaf cake until it was a nice rectangle, which I finished off according to Plan B. Using some of the leftover marzipan to make holly leaves.

I’m happy to report that baking the marzipan and jam into the batter was successful. The jam and marzipan flavors stayed distinct and unique. I’ll do all of my gingerbread cakes this way in the future becuase it’s easier and the end result flavor-wise is the same. The only reason I see to go to the trouble of rolling out the marizpan and sandwiching it with jam and gingerbread is if you’re after the visual image of the perfect line of contrasting filling as you cut into the cake. There is a pleasing aspect to the look.

Don’t think I wasted the dome I sliced off of the loaf cake. We’ve done a little nibbling and I think the dinner party we’re hosting on Saturday will feature Sauerbraten, a German pot roast seasoned and thickened with gingerbread!

Polish Gingerbread Cake Ciasto Imbirowe

Description

A dense cake-like gingerbread that is extra delicious paired with marzipan, jam, and chocolate ganache

Ingredients

1 cup honey (or golden syrup)

1 cup stong coffee

8 ounces unsalted butter (2 sticks)

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cloves

3 eggs

1 cup brown sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cocoa

for optional filling

4 ounce tube marzipan

apricot or plum jam

for ganache topping

1/2 cup heavy cream

5 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 F

Comgine honey, coffee, butter, and spices in a saucepan, heat just enough to let butter, remove from heat

Spray pans with baking spary (the one with flour works best)

Combine eggs, and brown sugar, slowly add in the warm honey mixure with the mixer running

Add baking powder, flour, and cocoa, mix until well combined

Spoon the mixture into the prepared pans, the batter is very thick

If you’re adding marzipan directly into the batter, only add half of the batter to the pan, add marzipan and jam (a coil of marzipan made from a 1/3″ slice and approximately a teaspoon of jam in a mini bundt, for a loaf pan, use 5-6 times this amount distributing throughout the loaf pan, avoiding the edges) and then top with remaining batter. I filed my mini bundts to just 1/2 inch below the top, they domed over the top of the pan giving a nice tall mini bundt with a slightly rounded bottom when it’s turned upside down)

Bake about 30 minutes for mini bundts, 45 minutes for loaf pans. You can test for doneness by pressing gently on the top of the cake, it should feel firm and spring back or a toothpick inserted in the top should come out clean

Cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then carefully remove and cool completely on a wire rack

If you want to add a filling, but didn’t bake it into the dough. slice the cakes into two layers

I trimmed my loaf cake to get a flat top and straight, not flared sides

Roll out the marzipan to about 1/8 inch thickness, cut to the shape of your cake

Heat jam, brush the jam onto what will be the middle of the cake, the top of the bottom layer, the bottom of the top layer, add the thin layer of marzipan on top of the bottom layer and add the top layer, creating a marzipan sandwich

for ganache

Heat the cream and chocolate (about 1 minute on 50% power in my microwave), stir until glossy and smooth

Let the ganache cool for a few minutes to about 100 F (or while you’re preparing the filling)